CANCER RESEARCH.

Otago Witness, Volume 23, Issue 2684, 23 August 1905, Page 11

CANCER RESEARCH.

The report of the General Committee of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund was read at the third annual meeting of that body held recently. It showed that good work has been done in the colonies, the protectorates, and in the Mother Country : and there has been much sympathetic cooperation among scientists dn Europe sun--} in America. The conclusions that were established last year have been confirmed, many negative conclusions have been established, and some important features of tho disease have been determined. Among other matters referred to by Sir William Church, was the use of radium. No cviHence had been obtained to show that radium produced any action on the tissues, unless it was introduced to a degree that exceeded safety. The year's work showed marked progress in the knowledge of the mode of growth of certain forms of malignant disease. Cancer, be said, was not caused by a parasite entering the body, and was not associated with diet, climate, or modes of life; but the importance of the ages at which the disease appeared had acquired greater significance. Malignant; new growths, through successive generations of mice, were gifted with the power of perpetual multiplication under favourable circumstances. In the abnormal proliferation and reproduction of cells appeared to lie the clue to the solution of tho mystery. This property definitely separated canoer from the known infective diseases. As confirming this, healthy mice kept for long periods in association with mice suffering from canoer did not acquire the disease. The malignancy of cancer appeared to consist in the inherent jaower the cells bos-

of cliuMon and 'nulsiplfcatiop. If T.hov couid di-co-\or the uafiuo of l!"i) apparint'\ I'nhniii -d orou-th. and how fencer i-i - i->?.s dc novo. thoy might hope 10 obi am the menus of cViPckir.^ tl-c prclifi-iaiion. rlii3r lii3 rpiju ation of th-> " jeinodips <-,<nt to ihf> la'ioratones had L'-cu bated on ih" applioaiion of ihe tt/ia "cane-?:" to disi^ai'* that w<\e not trii" ir.aii^n.int g'^vths. It is noi yer po=*ible to dotornino wi-.eth^r cancer i< n-ally im reaping. The Prince of Wales, who presided a<, Ihe mivtin^. a'so summaii^ed the year's work. He said that m India oin cor had been found among those who oai fi-h, a^- well as among vegetarians and moaf eateis.

Sentenced to a month's imprisonment at Timaru oir Friday, a sailo:- tasked the Court, in very broken English, "' What about my clothos on board the ship '"' Tlic chairman of tho Bench replied, " Oh. he won't need am clothes up theie; will he, Sorg-eant '!" The accused looked very puzzled at this somewhat ambiguous remark.

An example to thc^o children who avail thpm«el\ei3 of any prete.xt ta stay away from school tsas recorded at *'ie Auckland Education Board meeting: last week by a report from Miss, H. Hunt, teacher at Piako Yalloy .SciiO'>S, wlio stated that on July 18 two ilacri jviil-. s\iam across a flooded ciook sooner than turn back from school. The number on the roll at this school is 21. am', the avciago attendance for lhe month ivas 1E. 9. If ~— ■ «.— — f—np- —~- T-T II i ■i M 111 W'" "J-h»-» ?■"»■ y,'